


Lost & Found

by angeltheserpent



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, a short story exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 07:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13072086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeltheserpent/pseuds/angeltheserpent
Summary: I'm trying to learn to write again





	Lost & Found

It always starts from the beginning, but I'm starting from the end and going back to the beginning and following it all the way back to the end.

 

The beginning looked something like this:

I was young, and alone, and insecure. How little has changed, you say, and indeed you are right. 

But was it I who found you, or you who found me? We debated it endlessly.

As I tend to, I clung to you like a life raft. Whenever I find someone like that, I just have to hope that they can support me, otherwise it's just a matter of time before I sink us both. But even a broken raft can float to shore. I'm always destined to drown, or wait for another raft. You were the newest, as I'd just seen many float away. And in these waters, I saw none coming towards me. 

You were there, and you clung to me and I to you. It seemed perfect -- we were different and yet eerily similar. You followed me - or did I follow you? - for years to come until it last seemed to be my time to drown. But just as I began to struggle, there you were again, stronger than ever with two companions, all four of us a network of lifelines holding each other afloat. 

We stayed, tied together, for months of rough water and calm sailing alike. It took four years more of drifting at sea before our ropes finally frayed. We were all blind to the process but not to the damage, so I wasn't sure where I would be left when we finally fell to pieces. 

You came to me for help at the beginning -- you were taking on water and losing buckets. I tried to help, but the more I bailed, the thinner our rope. Every time I lifted a bucket, our tether dipped into the water, disintegrating a little more. At last I had to look you in the eye, my life raft, and tell you the only way would be someone else. We had been flying solo for so long, the four of us, and it was a hard prospect to stomach. I knew, though, that it was the only way to keep us all afloat.

You resisted though. You believed in me, you trusted me. You couldn't see that I wasn't strong enough to lift your buckets anymore. I finally gave up. I called for help, and you could believe what I had done. You were so taken aback you tried to run. You didn't see the stress that put on our ropes until they all, in a terrifyingly slow synchronicity, snapped. I watched it in horror as a broken rope trailed, but I saw the hole it had begun to pull in me, and I knew this was the only way. 

From your new distance, you screamed at us -- traitors, bitches. And then you couldn't bail yourself alone. Still you resisted help, and we all watched as you began to sink, begging to take us down with you. And here you are now, telling us we cut the holes, tossing needles at our rafts. 

But now we use the broken ropes you left to tie ourselves tighter, safer. A trio that can withstand the worst of the sea. All because of  _you._

 


End file.
